Left and Right Brain Copywriting: Letting the mind go ‘apeshit’ over ideas.

As I’ve gone through many periods of ‘writer’s block’ — I’ve come to formalise a system of innovation that helps me to keep churning out ideas.

Yes, it’s exhausting to do this, but I think it works, and it serves to keep me going and writing emotionally gripping copy.

So here’s how it works, and the ‘crux’ of the entire method.

When your right brain fails you, use your left.

When your left brain fails you, use your right.

Or in other words, cycle between rationality, and pure emotion.

For example, if I’m stuck with a headline… and I’m feeling the ‘emotions’ of the headline, and I can’t put it to words… I go back to research, and I go back to the homework, and the reading up of the relevant materials for the offer, in order to find that word that perfectly resonates with that emotion that I’m holding on to.

It’s like taking out my monkey mind for a walk, to see which one my primal ‘monkey brain’ likes and adores, and almost ‘freaks out’ over.

So when I hear that Primal part of my brain say that this is the one, and it goes ‘apeshit’ over the word. I know that this is the phrase that I want to use in the copy.

Now, when I understand what I need to do with my headline, and I have all the research done, and I know that the checklist is done, I know what are all the prerequisites for what I’m looking for in my headline, or in the lead or whatever…

I can’t analyse my way into an emotionally gripping headline, correct?

So what I do instead, is to let my monkey mind ‘move fast’ and ‘break shit’ and basically verbally vomit, and create new words, and ‘bang shit’ together, until I feel that something works,

And this is ‘held together’ by the boundaries that I’ve set with my logical mind.

So I think, the key to continuously pumping out copy, is to quickly ‘cycle’ between the monkey mind, and the logical mind…

Abit like how Barbara Oakley talked about it in her book ‘mind for numbers’ — even though that’s for math and science…

I think some of her principles are very applicable to the ‘art and science’ of copywriting.

So in summary:

- Set the boundaries for your monkey mind to move fast and break shit.

- Or guide your monkey mind to search for ideas that make it go ‘apeshit’ and bananas by guiding it with your logical, rational mind — these are usually the big ideas.

Cheers, and have a good one.

Zander.